Podcast appearances and mentions of Jason M Colby

In Ep. 3, we look at how humans have viewed and treated killer whales throughout history, especially in the Salish Sea. It starts with slaughter by fishermen, followed by captivity for entertainment, all the way up to our present moment, in which wild Southern Resident Killer Whales are endangered, but beloved. We look at portrayal in media (Free Willy, Blackfish and more) and get into how captivity shifted scientific study and shaped perception of orcas in ways that would ultimately lead to a ban on their capture in the Salish Sea. Our guest is Jason Colby, author of the book Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator. This is a moving and at times sad conversation that explores hard truths. But it ultimately offers hope. Rate, review and share the podcast to help spread the word. Get our free monthly newsletter at seadocsociety.org/newsletter Facebook: facebook.com/seadocsociety Instagram: Instagram.com/seadocsociety Twitter: twitter.com/seadocsociety Thanks to our sponsors: Shearwater Kayak Tours Rainshadow Solar Two Beers Brewing Company Deer Harbor Charters and The Averna Family Betsy Wareham and West Sound Marina The San Juan County Marine Resources Committee Apple State Vinegar Logo: FLOAT.org Music: Podington Bear

Jason M. Colby—an environmental and international historian, and professor, at the University of Victoria and author, most recently of  “Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest […]

Since the release of the documentary Blackfish in 2013, millions around the world have focused on the plight of the orca, the most profitable and controversial display animal in history. Yet until now, no historical account has explained how we came to care about killer whales in the first place. In celebration of Orca Awareness Month, environmental professor Jason M. Colby drew on interviews, official records, private archives, and his own family history, to tell the exhilarating and heartbreaking story of how the public came to love the ocean’s greatest predator. Colby dove into oceanic history to reveal the origins of the orca. Historically reviled as dangerous pests, killer whales were dying by the hundreds, even thousands, by the 1950s—the victims of whalers, fishermen, and even the US military. But that all changed in 1965, when Seattle entrepreneur Ted Griffin became the first person to swim and perform with a captive killer whale. Colby traced the trajectory of the orca’s image, revealing factors that led the public to embrace killer whales as charismatic and friendly. He explored encounters with captive orcas reshaped regional values in the Pacific Northwest, and helped drive environmental activism like Greenpeace’s anti-whaling campaigns. Join Colby for a definitive history of the feared and despised “killer whale,” and how its transformation into the beloved regional icon of the “orca” has impacted our relationship with the ocean and its creatures. Jason M. Colby is associate professor of environmental and international history at the University of Victoria. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, and raised in the Seattle area, he worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska and Washington State. He is the author of The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race, and US Expansion in Central America. Recorded live at University Lutheran Church by Town Hall Seattle on Tuesday, June 5, 2018.